Czech Republic to host 2024 Ice Hockey World Championship

Prague, Czech Republic – Good news for Czech ice hockey fans: the World Championship is coming to the Czech Republic in 2024!

Prague and Ostrava picked for 2024 Ice Hockey World Championship

The Czech Republic has been chosen by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), gathered in their annual congress in Slovakia, to host the 2024 Ice Hockey World Championship. The international competition will most likely be organized in the capital city of Prague and Ostrava, located in the north-east of the country, near the Polish border.

Matches are due to be held at the O2 Arena in Prague and the Ostravar Arena in Ostrava, the same venues that had already hosted the Ice Hockey World Championships in 2004 and 2015, when the Czech Republic last welcomed the games.

Ostrava, meanwhile, is also due to host the IIHF World Junior Championship from late December this year to January 5, 2020. The International Ice Hockey Federation already chose the next hosts for the next 14 World Junior Championships, which is also due to come back to the Czech Republic in 2028.

This will be the eleventh time Prague hosts the Ice Hockey World Championship (1933, 1938, 1947, 1959, 1972, 1978, 1985, 1992, 2004 and 2015), while Ostrava has only hosted it twice before.

Russia and Sweden-Denmark chosen for 2023 and 2025 World Championships

On May 24, the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) also announced that the city of St Petersburg, in Russia, will host the 2023 Ice Hockey World Championships for the third time, and that Sweden and Denmark were chosen as the co-hosts of the 2025 championship (the exact cities still have to be determined).

The next 2020 championship will be held in Zurich and Lausanne, Switzerland, next year, followed the Belorussian and Latvian capitals of Minsk and Riga in 2021. The competition will then move on to current world champions Finland and be organized in the cities of Helsinki and Tempere in 2022.

Last week, the Czech national ice hockey team finished fourth in the 2019 Ice Hockey World Championships, held in neighbouring Slovakia, after losing to Canada in the semi-finals and to Russia during the bronze medal play-off.

Finland ended up beating Canada in the final, thus becoming world champions for the third time after another win in Slovakia eight years ago and in Sweden in 1995.

Finland’s national ice hockey team celebrates its victory after beating Canada 3-1 in the 2019 World Championship final